5/15 PoliticsPA Playbook

Written by PoliticsPA Staff

The PoliticsPA 2018 primary election pool is here, Trump records an endorsement call for Barletta, and one last poll ahead of the Gubernatorial primary shows Wagner leading. Good morning politicos, here’s the Playbook!

2018 PoliticsPA Primary Election Pool: Co-sponsored by PoliticsPA & The Law Offices of Adam Bonin, enter for your chance at being known as the best politico in the state. Winners announced here next week.

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4 thoughts on “5/15 PoliticsPA Playbook”

Timing is everything in politics and Lou Barletta just has bad timing here. Trump is not drawing independents at all and in fact is turning them off in droves and that is who Lou has to appeal to so he can win. The reality is that Lou is so attached to the Trump brand he cannot extract himself from it. So goes Trump and so goes Lou politically. This means that the ongoing drama of the Muller investigation and Stormy Daniels and Russia and The Wall–it goes on and on taking down Lou’s chances to win in November. Bottom line: If Hillary had won this Senate race would absolutely be closer but with Trump tanking with independents and Lou tied to him it bodes badly for Lou’s November chances.

Good point on Lou and Trump but I’d say Trump owns the issue being that he is President. I think Trump and Lou are so intertwined that they are inseparable which definately works against Lou getting independents who are turned off to Trump. What is more interesting to me is to wonder about what this race looks like with Hillary President. I think it would be a toss-up and a very different race. The “What If’s” are fascinating.

If Hillary would have been elected in 2016, the Republicans in Congress would have spent the last 2 years investigating everything they could about her. Trey Gowdy would have been a prominent individual and would probably be running for re-election this year rather than retiring. I also think the Republicans would easily hold the house and would pick up seats in the US Senate, maybe even in PA. I still think Casey would win, but it would have been much closer that it will end up being in November. Lou won’t be able to carry votes across the state and I’ll even bet that he will run behind Wagner in vote total come November.